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I said at the start of the year that I’d try to avoid cynicism. But with reform efforts meeting fierce internal resistance, doubt is hard to shake.
This week, I uncovered new information about colleges and universities eager to shelter illegal students. California’s schools appear to be leading the way, with administrators planning to assist approximately 87,000 illegal students. Given their blatant defiance of immigration laws, it’s no surprise these institutions are also likely to protect foreign students who participated in pro-Hamas protests (see “Deporting Radicalism: Trump’s Crackdown on Anti-Israel Campus Protests”).
I was equally frustrated to learn that the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) has urged its members to defy Trump’s orders to scrap “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI). They claim that resisting DEI overhauls is a fight for academic freedom. The guidance states:
[T]he University of North Texas administration recently censored the content of more than two hundred academic courses, including by mandating the removal of words such as race, gender, class, and equity from undergraduate and graduate course titles and descriptions. These actions were allegedly taken in response to state legislation banning certain diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and practices, even though the legislation specifically exempted academic course content. While university administrators and faculty members may be compelled to comply with legislation and court orders, even where these run counter to professional and constitutional principles, they remain free to register their disagreement. And under no circumstances should an institution go further than the law demands.
[RELATED: The AAUP Discredits Itself]
Commenting on AAUP’s defiance on X earlier this week, I sparked a feud with FacultyForwardFlorida, which seems to be a campaign by the Florida Public Services Union to organize adjunct professors into unions. They jumped in to back the AAUP, telling me that “DEI efforts exist to ensure fair and equal representation for historically marginalized groups.” This is laughable.
The @AAUP is portraying Trump’s orders against DEI as an assault on academic freedom and urging universities to defy them.
The framing is remarkable. For years, DEI offices have functioned as ideological enforcement units, imposing race-based policies that violate civil rights… pic.twitter.com/Sv1NBWYgK9
— Jared Gould (@J_Gould_) February 4, 2025
DEI is nothing more than a leftist ideological racket dressed up as a noble quest for equality.
For years, DEI—whether baked into curricula or pushed by bloated administrative offices—has imposed race-based policies that flout civil rights law while pushing partisan indoctrination on students.
You don’t have to dig deep to hit radicalism.
In a report for Speech First, I detailed courses like Pomona College’s “Queering Childhood,” where students are pushed to embrace arguments for—among other draconian things—childhood transitioning without parental consent. Or “Queer Kingship: Undoing the American Family,” at the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities, which asserts—again, among other draconian ideas—that the American family is a tool of settler colonialism. Both courses fulfill DEI requirements at their respective universities.
These aren’t academic explorations—they’re ideological impositions.
Equally frustrating is the AAUP and FacultyForwardFlorida’s decision to ignore the inconvenient truth that DEI has become a pretext for colleges and universities to hire faculty based on race. John Sailer and Louis Galarowicz recently uncovered a damning collection of records from the University of Colorado, Boulder, exposing how the entire institution coordinated to establish a blatant, race-based hiring system—especially favoring “Black, Indigenous, or Latinx faculty.” This isn’t just misguided; it’s a flagrant violation of the law.
Faculty who challenge this nonsense face retaliation, forced re-education, or even termination, while those who support it are rewarded with accolades, job offers, and promotions. For over a decade, colleges and universities have punished those who question DEI orthodoxy, all while allowing its expansion under the misleading guise of equity.
Reforming this system is essential, but what hope do we have when every attempt to reform it is met with resistance? What can we do when colleges protect illegal students or when the AAUP or FacultyForwardFlorida encourages defiance against the law?
For now, our hope lies in exposure. Institutions rarely change willingly, and even when compelled by law, they resist compliance. That’s why we must expose institutions when they don’t follow the law.
[RELATED: ‘Treat Everyone the Same’ Doesn’t Cut It at UMass Chan Medical School]
When I found myself filled with doubt earlier this week, I reminded myself of Sarah Lawrence College getting caught violating federal civil rights law by restricting a mentorship program to “students of color.” A simple Title VI complaint forced the college to revise its policy. It may have been a small win, but it proved that exposing misconduct works.
And that’s the approach we must rely on going forward.
We must expose universities for the rot they’ve embedded in curricula, for violating the law, and for their extreme contempt for taxpayers. It’s the only way reform will happen.
Follow Jared Gould on X.
Image created using “Trump, Pentagon Leaders Honor 9/11 Victims” by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and “American Association of University Professors” by Mike Ferguson, both sourced from Flickr.
